The whimsically-named Grand Academy of Lagado will be brought to life at UniSA City West as part of this year’s Adelaide Fringe Festival.

Launching on February 24, the venue will open daily from 3pm till late for three weeks. It will showcase four art exhibitions and 32 performances, featuring two by UniSA students.

Performances will range from cabaret to comedy, magic to music, plus a food market and chill-out area.

In Jonathan Swift’s classic Gulliver’s Travels, The Grand Academy was an educational institution where weird, wonderful and completely preposterous ideas were explored – extracting sunbeams from cucumbers, anyone?

Although you may not discover an answer to that here, the venue aims to showcase innovative performances and artwork, creating new opportunities for emerging artists.

UniLife Marketing Officer Eugene Phoa said the time was right to introduce the event, given student lounge upgrades and a desire to showcase local talent.

“(There were) several reasons to start up a Fringe venue in 2012, including interest from students for a place to hang out and…to support events outside of the east end,” he said.

“This Adelaide Fringe initiative was put in place to stimulate people to discover new things in our city that you wouldn’t normally have noticed.”

Mr Phoa said UniLife aims to create a relaxing, comfortable atmosphere with the event, and will present a variety of shows for students and the general public.

On top of performances and art, The Grand Academy will launch the World’s Biggest Pub Crawl, where crawlers can get drink specials at local pubs from February 24 until March 18.

Mr Phoa thinks the uni-based venue will enjoy similar success to last year’s National Campus Band Comp.

“(It will) create a platform that fosters student art, music, career, events and work experience opportunities,” he said.

Performer Felicity Le believes it is vital to showcase South Australia’s talent, and will use her Grand Academy-based act Fist Full of Aces Variety Show to do just that.

“It’s become a passion of mine to do what I can to inform people about the amazing, talented people we have here in South Australia,” she said.

“The Fringe is a perfect platform for people to really see outside that little box we live in.”

Her performance features burlesque and live music reminiscent of the 1920-40’s, and will show on February 25-26 and March 1.

She strongly encourages everyone to support Fringe acts and to truly experience what SA performers have to offer.

“It doesn’t matter what you are interested in. Trust me, the Adelaide Fringe has it.”

You can find The Grand Academy of Lagado at the old Traffic Nightclub/student lounge on UniSA’s City West campus.

Check out the Grand Academy of Lagado’s site here: www.thegrandacademyoflagado.com